postgres-protocol: Unbounded SCRAM iteration count allows a malicious server to cause CPU-exhaustion denial of service
Key facts
- Attack vector
- —
- Privileges required
- —
- User interaction
- —
- Attack complexity
- —
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- —
- Fix status
- Fixed
No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from GitHub. Impact type from CWE-770.
Summary
A malicious, compromised, or man-in-the-middle server can supply an arbitrarily large SCRAM-SHA-256 PBKDF2 iteration count during authentication. The client runs it inline with no upper bound, pinning a `tokio` worker thread for minutes per connection, possibly stalling the whole async runtime. Applications that connect only to a trusted database are not exposed; the risk applies to clients that may connect to untrusted or user-supplied servers, or whose connection can be intercepted by a man-in-the-middle.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | postgres-protocol (crates.io) | 0.3.0 to before 0.6.12 | 0.6.12 | Patch available | GHSA-5x78-73v4-xg6w |
- postgres-protocol (crates.io) Vendor— Affected 0.3.0 to before 0.6.12 Fixed in 0.6.12 Patch available GHSA-5x78-73v4-xg6w
Remediation
- Fix · GHSA-5x78-73v4-xg6w postgres-protocol (crates.io) Fixed in 0.6.12 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-03 Threatist record created from GHSA-5x78-73v4-xg6w
References
Sources
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences